Why are Citations Important

In academic papers, reports and dissertations, citations serve several basic purposes. They are almost universally required by academic institutions, college instructors, and by the publishing industry.

The Basic Purpose of Citations

The basic purpose of citations is to give proper credit where credit is due. By referencing the original sources of information in an essay, report or dissertation, the original author is being given proper credit for his or her work and prevents the student or doctoral candidate from being accused of plagiarism.

Verification of Research Information

Citations also serve as a portion of the author’s research audit trail. Through this trail, those viewing the document may verify the sources of the author’s information and perhaps discover any incorrect references, quotation errors, or mistaken interpretations of the source’s information or findings.

Lack of such information places a state of questionability over not only the document’s legitimacy as a factual source, but also the credibility of the author. Even if such information proves valid later, failing to give proper credit to the original source gives the impression the author is attempting to claim the information as his own work, violating any number of legal, professional, and academic conduct policies. If the information proves to be inaccurate or fraudulent, dissertation and academically prepared documents are frequently cited by other writers and proliferate the inaccurate information far into the future, thus inhibiting or sabotaging the progress of the industry or academic discipline in question.

Errors of Omission

When preparing academic reports and dissertations, authors tend to overlook searching for relevant information outside their own academic discipline. The effects of this failure can be quite profound. Proper documentation of one’s research can assist in the uncovering of unrecognized or unknown related materials by others.

A major example occurred fairly recently. Geneticists had for years attempted to understand an apparent die-off of humans approximately 13,000 years ago, creating a genetic crisis in which only a few thousand humans were available to perpetuate the species. The cause of this was beyond the understanding of the geneticists.

The solution came from a volcanologist. A major volcanic event had occurred during that time, triggering a sudden global cooling and was, perhaps, responsible for triggering the last ice age. The climatic shift would have played havoc on food supplies and weather patterns around the world. Life sciences, which genetics is a part of, did not hold the answer to the genetic question; the answer was found in a planetary science. Using properly cited materials, the volcanologist and geneticists were able to trace back the relevant information, to evaluate the magnitude of the volcanic event, and to understand the effects it had on a global scale.